outsider art

Let's start with a poem by Charles Bukowski

a smile to remember

we had goldfish and they circled around and around
in the bowl on the table near the heavy drapes
covering the picture window and
my mother, always smiling, wanting us all
to be happy, told me, "be happy Henry!"
and she was right: it's better to be happy if you
can
but my father continued to beat her and me several times a week
while
raging inside his 6-foot-two frame because he couldn't
understand what was attacking him from within.

my mother, poor fish,
wanting to be happy, beaten two or three times a
week, telling me to be happy: "Henry, smile!
why don't you ever smile?"

and then she would smile, to show me how, and it was the
saddest smile I ever saw

one day the goldfish died, all five of them,
they floated on the water, on their sides, their
eyes still open,
and when my father got home he threw them to the cat
there on the kitchen floor and we watched as my mother
smiled

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In my opinion we cannot start a blog regarding human frailty and how psychosis draws us deeper to our artistic roots without a poem.

Brief definition: Outsider Art is an English synonym for the term Art Brut ( "raw art", "rough art"). It was coined by Roger Cardinal, an art critic, in 1972 to describe art which remains outside of the boundries of traditional and cultural guidelines. Often it is used to describe art created by asylum inmates, and those gravely mentally ill.

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On the outsider art website, there stands a manifesto:

I am an artist

Being an artist is a scary thing to declare; it's much easier being a plumber or engineer or doctor. Not in doing...but in telling. When you say "I'm a plumber", everyone knows what you do. Same with a doctor or engineer. Most know why you do it, too. And probably how much you make.
But when you say "I am an artist", peoples minds go mad, they twirl and shake and tilt. You can see it in the air escaping their wordless lips , in the ends of their hair. You can see the confusion in their faces and the way they shake and stand.
Still, the artist prevails.
Not all of us can say we are creators, forming something from nothing, sometimes WITH nothing. The artists exhibited here are being artists. And we are proud to tell the world and show their work.

Fr. Andrew Lewandowski

• A priest from the Roman Catholic After undergoing a period of depression, his parish allowed to get the help he needed, thus he decided to attend art school. After every artistic director told him he could not create, he continued and experimented with colour in his own way.
  

"I will not take myself seriously as an artist although I will take my art seriously. . To take myself seriously is to tarnish the reason I create. I hold that no work is worth so much that people who like it can not possess it. Each work is a unique and personal expression that flows from the source of my being. I will create whether or not my expression is understood or appreciated. I hold to my position as an outsider and I will use that position to continue to experience and represent that inner world that comes from me. As an outsider I will not hold to the expectations of others but remain true to my vision. I do not need to succeed, I do not need to be noticed or acclaimed, I need only to create."

Gates of Paradise

outsider art link
his website

Nek Chand
Nek Chand is an artist who uses stones as his medium of choice, which he tend sculpts and turns into images. Using recycled materials he sets the stones along a little clearing.

his website


Marshall Bock

"Thumbwrestlers"

his site

deviant art

Mike Egan

His paintings are created using acrylic paint, shellac and sandpaper and are made on wood panels and stretched canvases. He is inspired by The German Expressionists, stained glass windows, Halloween, Southern folk art, funeral homes, horror films, music, and lowbrow/outsider art.

his site

Joe Minter

"Joe Minter, a carpenter (b. 1935), explains that he had a revelation from God in 1989. He felt led to construct a monument to African American history rendered in found objects and house paint in his side yard. There are representations of African warriors watching their descendants’ struggles in Alabama; tributes to black scientists and military leaders; recreations of the epic civil rights confrontations in Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma; biblical scenes; a memorial to a little girl who was swept into a rain-swollen storm drain in 1999; and hand-lettered messages everywhere. In a piece on cultural self-criticism, Minter painted a series of street signs with names like ‘Self Hate Street,’ ‘Gang Warfare Street,’ and ‘Babies Having Babies Having Babies Self-Genocide Street.’ Visitors should knock on Minter’s front door before entering the side yard if his pickup truck is parked in the driveway; otherwise, they should view the art from the sidewalk."

flikr

gallery

Bobby Dixon

myspace

his site (in progress)

Kurt Haas

Kim Noble

link

kHyal

"ecosystem"

link

Malcolm McKesson

"Abeysanse"

link

wiki

Bart Powers

link

discarded art

This is called "ward" and in my opinion is an image of the feelings of being in an asylum, surrounded with all these people along with feelings of being crowded and watched by faceless people in trench coats.